German-owned enterprises were deliberately used by the German Government as integral parts of its propaganda and secret service or spy system in the United States. Wherever there was reasonable ground to believe that this was the case, or the enterprise was of a character that it was unwise to leave in the hands of aliens, its affairs have been wound up and the property sold. Although the office of Alien Property Custodian was created primarily for the purpose of preventing residents in enemy countries from using property located in the United States as a source of revenue or otherwise, it has been a powerful agency for breaking up the hold that Germany and German citizens had upon many of our important industries. The justification for this lay not merely in the danger that such a condition of affairs presented to. our national security, but in the manner in which the power granted to such aliens had been grossly abused. The final disposition that will be made of the property and money sequestered rests with Congress, which in turn will be influenced by the conditions of the treaty of peace as finally signed. CHAPTER XIV AIRCRAFT CONSTRUCTION Disappointments of the aviation programme National Advisory Of all the branches of war activity of the United States none gave so much trouble or produced such unsatisfactory results as aircraft production. This was not due to any lack of appreciation on the part of the Government of the importance of military aviation. The experience of the belligerents prior to the entrance of the United States into the war had made plain the important part that aviation was to play in both military and naval operations, and Congress placed almost unlimited funds at the disposal of the Administration with which to build and operate a fleet of aircraft. The failure of the Government to meet expectations in respect to the actual construction of airplanes was due to a number of causes, one of which was its failure to work out a proper system of administration for the handling of aircraft matters. It is with this phase only of the question that we are here concerned.1 The first agency to be established to assist in the de 1 A detailed discussion of the problems, difficulties, failures, and achievements in aircraft production is given, in this series, in Arthur Sweetser, The American Air Service. velopment of an aviation service was that known as the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. This service was created prior to our being drawn into the war by a section contained in the Naval Appropriation Act of March 3, 1915, which provided for the constitution of a committee under this name which should have as its function "to supervise and direct the scientific study of the problems of flight with a view to their practical solution, and to determine the problems which should be experimentally attacked and to discuss their solution and their application to practical questions." The Act provided that the Committee should be composed of 12 members to be appointed by the President, two of whom should be from the office in charge of military aeronautics of the War Department, two from the office in charge of naval aeronautics of the Navy Department, one from the Smithsonian Institution, one from the Weather Bureau, one from the Bureau of Standards, and the remaining five from among persons "acquainted with the needs of aeronautical science, either civil or military, or skilled in aeronautical engineering or its applied sciences." All of these members were to serve without compensation. It was further provided that in case a laboratory or laboratories were placed under the direction of the Committee, the latter should direct their operations and conduct such researches and experiments as it found necessary. An appropriation of $50,000 a year for five years was made for the support of the Committee. This appropriation, however, was subsequently greatly increased, that for the fiscal year 1918 being $100,000. The Committe was constituted with Dr. William F. Durand of the Leland Stanford University of California as its Chairman, Dr. S. W. Stratton, Director of the Bureau of Standards as the Secretary, and Dr. Charles D. Walcott, Director of the Smithsonian Institution, as Chairman of its Executive Committee. For the prosecution of its work the Committee created subcommittees on the following subjects: Aerial Mail Service, Aero Torpedoes, Aircraft Communications, Airplane Mapping, Bibliography of Aeronautics, Buildings, Laboratories and Equipment, Civil Aerial Transport, Design, Construction and Navigation of Aircraft, Editorial, Foreign Representatives, Free Flight Tests, Governmental Relations, Helicopter or Direct-Lift Aircraft, Nomenclature for Aeronautics, Patents, Policy, Power Plants, Quarters, Radiator Design, Relation of the Atmosphere to Aeronautics, Site for Experimental Field, Engineering Problems, Standardization and Investigation of Materials, and Steel Construction for Aircraft. The Committee has been a very active body. It has published three annual reports, each of which includes a large number of scientific memoirs or papers dealing with the technical problems of aviation. Especially important has been its work in analyzing the whole problem of aircraft construction and operation; in acting as a means for correlating and standardizing the work of the War and Navy Departments; in making an inventory of aircraft facilities in the United States; in establishing close working relations with aircraft producers; and in assisting in the working out of plans for the production and testing of aircraft and the training of aviators. Itself not an operating service, it has thus been an exceedingly valuable staff agency for all branches of the Government having to concern themselves with the problems of flight. Regarding the work of this Committee, Mr. Justice Hughes, in his report on the aircraft-production inquiry prosecuted by him at the request of the President, had this to say: This body has been continuously maintained; it has examined numerous inventions and has been engaged in scientific study. But it has had nothing to do with the formulation of the aircraft programme or with decisions as to the types of planes or engines selected for production. The Committee was also active in securing the adjustment reflected in what is known as the cross-license agreement for the payment of royalties for the use of patented inventions pertaining to aircraft. A Joint Army and Navy Technical Aircraft Board was created early in May, 1917, for the purpose of standardizing "so far as possible the designs and general specifications of aircraft except Zeppelins." It was composed of officers of the Army and the Navy selected by the Secretaries of War and of the Navy who were believed to have special qualifications by reason of their scientific study of, or experience with, the construction and operation of aircraft. This Board made a number of recommendations, but it never played any controlling part in the formulation or execution of an aircraft programme. About the same time that the Departments of War and the Navy were creating their Joint Technical Aircraft Board, the Council of National Defense took steps to create a somewhat similar agency. A resolution adopted on April 12, 1917, provided for the creation of a body to be known as the Aircraft Production Board, the function of which was declared to be: to consider the situation in relation to the quantity production of aircraft in the United States and to coöperate with the officers of the Army and Navy, and of other departments in |